Health-care experts outline U.S. priorities

Monumental health-care problems await the new president and the man he selected to lead the Health and Human Services Department.

Monumental health-care problems await the new president and the man he selected to lead the Health and Human Services Department.

And both want to hear all about them.

Former Sen. Tom Daschle, nominee for health and human services secretary, has asked for input from experts across the country as he and his colleagues look toward meeting President-elect Barack Obama's goal that every American have access to high-quality, affordable health care.

Almost 30 local and state health-care experts met yesterday at Ohio State's University Hospital East in hopes they will be heard.

The group was diverse and included people paid to look at the issues from many perspectives. Patients, government, businesses and those who deliver health care often see the same problems, but think differently about how to solve them.

Yesterday's meeting wasn't without disagreement, but the group focused on several key points, including:

• All Americans should have affordable health coverage.

• Much more attention should be placed on prevention and wellness. Health care, many members of the group said, currently is built around reacting to crises rather than preventing them in the first place.

• Prenatal care and infant care should be prioritized.

• Each American should have a so-called "medical home," a consistent place where he or she can rely on health care.

"We told the Daschle group that we were very anxious to do this," said Dr. Steven G. Gabbe, chief executive officer of the Ohio State University Medical Center.

Gabbe, who was facilitator for the meeting, will send the group's recommendations to Daschle within a week.

The comments participants made yesterday hammered home the profound and complex troubles associated with health care.

Employers are struggling to pay for insurance. Patients are scrambling to find treatment and are having trouble paying the bills when they do. Government is faced with limited resources and a system that rewards treatment over prevention.

"We can only be as healthy as the country and the world that we live in," said Debbie Coleman, assistant Columbus health commissioner.

Claus von Zychlin, Mount Carmel Health System's chief executive officer, spoke of the class system that exists in health care, and the importance of focusing on a national commitment to universal coverage.

As a foundation, a medical home for each American not only would help each of us with good and timely treatment, it would educate us on how best to take responsibility for our own health, said Cathy Levine, executive director of the Universal Health Care Action Network of Ohio.

Cheryl Boyce, executive director of the Ohio Commission on Minority Health, said that moving toward a more prevention-focused model of health care should mean looking beyond hospitals and doctors' offices to other community organizations, such as recreation centers, that can contribute to a healthier population.

The group also spent a considerable amount of time discussing the challenges of implementing a nationwide electronic medical records system.

mcrane@dispatch.com

"We can only be as healthy as the country and the world that we live in."